


Beside You, Always

by Jubokko, LazarusII



Series: KakaIru One-Shots to Heal (or Break) Your Heart [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Blood and Injury, Deathfic, Hatake Kakashi is Not Okay, Hurt, Konoha Gets Destroyed, M/M, POV Umino Iruka, Post-Naruto Shippuden, Umino Iruka is Not Okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:48:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26262919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jubokko/pseuds/Jubokko, https://archiveofourown.org/users/LazarusII/pseuds/LazarusII
Summary: “I’ll die alone on the battlefield someday,” Kakashi said with a shrug.The words never stopped haunting Iruka.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Series: KakaIru One-Shots to Heal (or Break) Your Heart [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1821832
Comments: 16
Kudos: 72





	Beside You, Always

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> This is rated M for blood and gore (and death), it _might_ be overkill, but I'd rather be safe than sorry :))
> 
> Written to “Bury My Heart” by Peter Gundry, “B.S.B.D” by Kim Planert, and “The Night King” by Ramin Djawadi--(yes, I cried writing this).
> 
> The work has not been beta-read, so please be kind to me <33
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

_“I’ll die alone on the battlefield someday,” Kakashi said with a shrug._

_The words never stopped haunting Iruka._

* * *

Smoke hung thick in the air, a suffocating haze that drifted across the razed city. Every now and then, a slight updraft would send lazy curls of dark gray cloud upwards, ashes fluttering softly in its midst. 

Iruka crawled slowly across the ground, each movement sending wave upon wave of searing pain through his body. He could feel the blood beneath his fingers, seeping from the tattered skin of his palms, and the trail of warmth running down his chest. Everything below the small of his back was useless, a dead weight for him to carry. Penance for his dulled senses and hesitation. 

Head down, he dragged himself forwards, hands scrabbling against the remnants of the destroyed building for a handhold-- _anything_ to help him move through the rubble.

In his frenzy, Iruka’s hand smacked against a metal pipe, sending what felt like an electric shock searing all the way up into his shoulder. Body tensing against the renewed pain, Iruka retched, fighting for air even as his lungs begged for mercy. 

Something tore slightly in the bloody mess of his side, burning like he’d just been stuck with a hot poker. Iruka drunkenly wondered if his uniform and light armor were holding his guts in place. It certainly _felt_ that way.  
  


A darkness wavered about his vision, and Iruka squeezed his eyes tight. 

Shifting to his right, he spat the mixture of blood and vomit into the ashes of Konoha. Ordinarily, he would have felt embarrassed in public doing such a thing, but there was no longer anyone there to see him--no one to give a damn that the Academy principal was slowly dying. The battlefield was all but abandoned now, littered with bodies and the stench of burning flesh.   
  


It was no place for the living.   
  


He kept crawling.   
  


  
  


After what felt like a few centuries, Iruka’s vision wavered, and he stopped. His breathing was shallow and desperate, and he hesitated slightly before squinting upwards through unfocused eyes.

The man was only a few meters away from him now, partially-buried beneath what had once been a main support of the village mail center, stretched out on a large slab of concrete. Iruka could see red, the scarlet lifeblood of his partner, staining the ground nearby.

He closed his eyes again and bowed his head. 

_Just a little farther_ , he told himself. _Just a little…_

Inside his chest, Iruka could feel his heart thundering against his ribcage. Emotions swamped his mind, pain, fear, shock-- 

His expression collapsed. Mist gathered at the bottom of his vision, and sent the world right out of focus again. 

“Damn it.” Iruka whispered through his teeth, feeling moisture track down from his eye and darken the soot below him. “Damn it all.”

  
...

A cold wind met Iruka’s exposed skin and he shivered, even as his arms strained to keep him moving, to keep the green flak jacket sliding across the ground--

His fingers finally ghosted the edge of the concrete slab, and Iruka rested his forehead there against the stone. 

_Almost._

The hole in his side was bleeding worse than ever, a perpetually-growing stain against the dirt and grime covering his flak jacket.

Iruka could still picture the medical nin who had tried to help him, the man's fingers dancing across the wounded area, bathed in green light. 

... Not _all_ the blood on the flak jacket was Iruka’s. 

The medical nin's terrified expression still was clear in his mind, a vivid image of the nin’s last moments. 

Iruka let out a soft cry as he heaved his elbow onto the slab. His fingers slipped slightly and he mentally cursed his useless lower half, digging his nails into the stone as best he could to stay put. The resulting feeling of concrete screeching beneath his fingernails sent involuntary shivers down what he could feel of his spine. 

Misjudging his next handhold, Iruka gritted his teeth when his palm slapped down on rubble, shrapnel and stones digging into the already-torn hand. This time, the renewed pain kept him awake. It kept him moving. 

With a final heave, Iruka hauled himself up onto the ledge and fell to the cold stone belly-down. There was no way he could roll over, not in his state. 

There was a torso beside Iruka, a man clad in a dark uniform--a _recognizable_ uniform. It was stained dark, and if there was any movement, Iruka couldn’t see it. 

Kakashi. 

Iruka’s eyes burned horribly, and he felt his throat constrict. 

His energy was already draining away, the fiery inferno of pain and death hovering just above the wound in his back--and whispering about his chest. 

But he was still breathing--still _alive_. 

And Kakashi was right there, inches away. 

Iruka gathered his strength, taking a terrible, rattling breath, before he pulled himself just a little closer to the man. 

Exhausted, feeling the darkness looming closer, Iruka pushed a hand upwards. He found a section of bloodstained rebar first, one of two that had forced their way through his lover's midsection. Struggling to stay conscious, Iruka let his hand move farther, and eventually found the center of Kakashi’s chest. 

The tears were blinding now, spilling down his face and falling to the cement in darkened circles. 

Iruka could not feel movement beneath his fingers.

With every passing moment, he was shutting down. No longer able to keep himself even somewhat upright, Iruka's upper body slowly sank to the cement. He fought to keep his head held aloft. 

Then Iruka felt it, a hand--fingers meeting his own. 

“--ruka?”

The chest moved slightly with the words, enough for him to feel it.

Iruka could only squeeze the hand, his throat too constricted with emotion to vocalize anything but the occasional whispering breath. He could feel Kakashi’s other hand ghosting his face, blindly fumbling for him. 

Kakashi’s hand found his hair and then weakly dropped back to the concrete. 

“You’re--here?” The man's voice was fading, his strength waning in the effort of speaking. 

Darkness swimming around his vision, Iruka leaned his forehead into the man’s side and let out a sigh. A haze was swimming in the back of his mind, welcoming arms promising a world free of pain… 

Kakashi let out a slight breath, and the grip around Iruka’s hand tightened slightly, grounding the chunin for just a few more seconds. 

Iruka forced out a whisper before he let go, his fingers growing slack around Kakashi’s. 

_“Always.”_

**Author's Note:**

> You can find find me on Tumblr [here](https://akumu-jubokko.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


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